9 Low-Cost Beauty Hacks You Can’t Live Without

The bad news about getting serious with beauty is that the products cost a lot. You can easily burn through several hundred dollars in a single shopping trip just to buy one of each kind of item for your hair, face, and skin. In fact, statistics show that cosmetics are a billion-dollar industry, and product prices are on the upswing.

The good news with getting serious about beauty is that you don’t have to go that route. Plenty of simple beauty hacks can get you the results of those uber-expensive options for less — and while saving yourself from unnamable chemicals with unknown effects on your health.

A lot of options exist in this department. Read on for our favorites.

Low-Cost Beauty Hacks

1. Fall in Love with Coconut Oil

Coconut oil has powerful moisturizing qualities. With a texture more like butter than oil, you can rub coconut oil into your skin, hair and cuticles to moisturize and protect.

If you skip the branded skin lotions, hair conditioners and cuticle oils, you’ll save big. Coconut oil’s price point is half or less than the price-per-volume than branded beauty products. And another bonus: you save space in your bathroom by tossing three jars of product for just one.

2. Use Yogurt for Pimple Cream

Pimples are an unavoidable part of life, even for adults. And pimple creams and concealers are unbelievably expensive. Maybe you’ve heard about the toothpaste hack — using toothpaste to reduce the appearance of those blemishes. But here’s the even less expensive strategy.

Take a drop of yogurt (folks say full-fat Greek works best, but whatever you’re buying anyway for breakfast is fine). Dab it on the zit and leave it there for 20 minutes. The coolness will reduce inflammation and discoloration, and the bacteria in the yogurt will help mitigate the bacteria that clogged the pores in the first place.

3. Powder Your Lips

Touching up your lipstick all day long makes those tubes disappear faster than anybody would like. This technique cuts those touch-ups to emergency-use only, so you spend less re-upping your supply.

After you’ve applied your lipstick, sprinkle face powder (or even baby powder) onto a tissue paper. Press the powdered paper to your lips, including between your lips, to blot the lipstick. This fixes your color in place so it rubs off less often, and only under more serious circumstances.

4. Find a Favorite Product and Stick with It

Trends are not your friends. If you buy the new big thing each time it comes out, you end up buying more makeup and beauty products overall, and you’re buying them when they’re the most expensive.

Stick with the brands, styles, and colors you love most, and experiment with new things only as an occasional treat. If you find a new favorite, stick with that and buy when the price drops after the fad has run its course.

You get bonus points for buying those favorites in bulk online, and by working your favorite loyalty programs.

5. Lock in Hair Dye With Vinegar

A home hair dye saves $100 or more right away, but those buy-in-a-box treatments don’t last as long as the salon jobs. Sun, weather, and just daily use fade them quickly. So you end up buying another box sooner, and you have to live with a week or three when you’re not happy with your hair color.

But a $2 bottle of apple cider vinegar saves the day. Once you’ve finished the steps outlined in the instructions for your dye job, rub a cup or so of the vinegar into your hair. Wait 10 minutes for it to set, then rinse. You’ll get two to three weeks more out of each dye session.

6. Meet Your Local Beauty School

Those human beings get beauty treatments from qualified, soon-to-be-professionals at prices less than half what you’d pay in a salon. The quality is usually as good, and sometimes better. After all, these students are looking to prove themselves in a new career. They’re excited to show their stuff.

Find your local beauty school. Call to introduce yourself and volunteer. If you’ve been buying all manner of potions and lotions to keep your hair manageable, try drying your hair with an old t-shirt for a week.

The piles on towels are great for wicking away moisture, but they also pull and break your hair to make it frizzy, seem dryer, and generally act out of control. A t-shirt has a smooth surface which, on the other hand, treats hair gently.

After a week of treatment, you may find you need only a fraction of the product you were using before.

7. Shower Less Often

The advice to shower with soap daily and shampoo often was — and we’re not making this up — advertising flack from the early 20th century. It’s not only untrue, it’s actually bad for your skin and hair. Scale back to showering with soap two to three times each week, and shampooing just the once. If you exercise frequently, a rinse-off shower is fine after each workout.

This saves you money directly in two ways. First, you use less soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Second, you use less water, creating more savings on your utility bill. Indirectly, less drying and damage to your skin and hair means buying less moisturizer and other products you only use because the showers messed you up in the first place.

8. Turn Old Eyeshadow into New Nail Polish

When eyeshadow starts getting chalky, you end up throwing it away before you really want to…and then you end up buying more. That adds up to higher makeup expenses overall.

But if you take that chalky eyeshadow and smash it up into grains, you can mix it into clear nail polish. Once you stir it thoroughly enough to eliminate all lumps, voila! New topcoat! And generally, it’ll be a color you couldn’t buy off the shelf.

9. Eat Right

One final cheap beauty hack: eat right. A balanced diet including lots of fruit and veggies saves you money as compared to prepackaged junk foods, fast foods, and restaurant meals. It also keeps your skin healthier, your eyes less baggy, your tummy flatter, and your hair healthier. It’s a win-win.

About the Author: Michelle Ferguson

Michelle is a beautician and cosmetologist by trade and has had fun creating her own set of natural make-up tricks that she now shares with her readers far and wide. From homemade hair treatment to the best how-to tips on drawing a great cat-eye, Michelle’s your girl.